Halo Age of Reclamation: The Ark Inheritance
by PrimalCast
Summary: The sequel to the story Halo Age of Reclamation: Protocol Annihilation. in the year 2442 the human military planet 'Reach' fell under a covenant extermination, nearly 1000 years passed where they were able to rebuild and now the Demonica strike another extermination. Humanity is forced to leave however stumble upon something which may change the course of history again.
1. Chapter 1: The Prophet of Truth

… We are the lost, we are the unfound… reborn to a fate no other can imagine…

Bound in this form until our turn of death… we can't rebuild what we had just lost however can recover to continue its mission… we are the Demonica…

Age of Reclamation: The Ark Inheritance

CHAPTER 1: PROPHIT OF TRUTH

Gravemind our leader, we will strike again, the words have been spoken and the deed has been done. Earth is no longer home to anyone its only left barren. Our faithful Penitent had betrayed you as the prophecy was complete. With him no longer in our path or the humans, we can slowly perform your resurrection. For I am Truth! I will lead your alliance to our enemy's destruction.

"Prophet Truth, excuse me but the legacy was only given upon Gravemind, and how do you intent on bringing him back?" Regret questioned.

"There is no need for questioning Regret; however you did ask an important question. Behold the Ark! This familiar structure is the sequence to activate all halos, a super planet shaped out as a hollow platform of mass forerunner creation to remotely activate all the rings in the universes. This will wipe out the enemy and unlock the gate which holds our Gravemind hostage."

"And you're sure this Ark is within our reach, within distance for us to reach it before the enemy? The humans are vile threats to our campaign, they destroyed Gravemind, how are you sure they won't destroy us or the Ark?"

"Poor Regret, your ability to doubt will cause heresy in your words so be mindful of that".

Regret was a great brother of mine as was Mercy however i did see a more insightful passion with Regret as he constantly spent time organising with me however he was a more curious worried type leader which is why the main leadership fell in my hands. Regret was what you could say abstinent to war and only provided battle plans rather than offensive action whereas Mercy was in charge of troop preparation and battlefield communications. Us leaders together form the remaining semi-flood-minds to our glorious Gravemind and have only one ambition which was to resurrect our master and prevail on the paths in which all others failed.


	2. Chapter 2: The second enlightening

CHAPTER 2: THE SECOND ENLIGHTENTING

I am Regret, 2nd prophet of intellect. The plan is foretold all who hear this message will drive with us to the road of salvation. We will set out our hunt for the Ark as soon as we have ready clearance by the prophet's Truth and Mercy.

"Had you not heard me brother? The prophet of Truth is telling a lie! This Ark is not our salvation but our doom, had you not known what Gravemind unleashed upon that world with the necromancers. The Gravemind is gone forever, things stay the same they just, modify; we are still the enemy."

"Maybe Mercy, however by the campaign against the Humans, Necromancer and the fallen heretics there is still evidence that the Ark exists as our only as it can still remotely ensure all rings are to be fired rather than having to individually fire them ourselves. Our enemy settle on the planets Harmony and Reach. The only secret that remains on Reach about the Ark what the Humans call, 'the Coliseum of the unyielding' this is where we make our first mark against them".

"And what should this Archive of Human history provide us with?" Mercy speaks regrettably.

"Buried under New Alexandria is an archive of enemy intelligence of the past 9th age of reclamation. All Human actions are recorded and saved in these archives which retell history; we can harvest the Ark's knowledge to find its location"

"Well ill see to Truth's actions towards the invasion Prophet" Mercy retreats with feelings of hate.

Being the second Prophet in charge of the Demonician enforcement my obligation is to produce the battle plans to minimise threats of potential failure not having any Intel with the Human city provides a hazard in itself. The only way i can create any form of battle plan i need to examine the city thus taking a risk in itself. The only request i have is that Mercy leads his troops into battle as soon as we hit to force the Humans a stead distance away from our cruisers to ensure i can create these plans.


	3. Chapter 3: Corrupt Leadership

CHAPTER 3: HIGH CHARITY 10th AGE OF RECLAMATION

I am Mercy, lowest rank in the Demonician hierarchs. I am however, in charge of all military operations. My seriousness in this Ark protocol is concerning both me and the other prophets. I don't feel that this is such a noble act of war. The Gravemind was put to rest by the legendary traitor Penitent Tangent whom once summoned us to his side in battle. We should be following his orders, not Gravemind's but none of the Prophets believe this is the way to go. They believe in resurrecting the Gravemind through the citadel on the Ark without confirmation what it actually does. Hopefully somewhere in this archive i can find the answers. Approaching Truth on the bridge to discuss his actions towards the invasion he precursors my presence.

"Mercy my brother, do you not have faith in the great journey?"

"No my hierarch I just don't believe in the stories, the truth…" before i could finish my appeal, Truth intrudes my speech and questions me on the belief that the Ark is our salvation. I decline his possible theory, stating that we must activate the Ark. However i also disapprove the resurrection of the Gravemind so either way my opinion has no part in his belief being the lowest rank in the Demonician hierarch.

As i storm out of the bridge with anger, Truth stares at me curious and decisive. I head back to my quarters in the battlement station where i regroup with my squadron. We are a small squadron with only the best of fighters within the Demonica. We initially started out with ten however numbers died out in the last war on earth and leaving Hybris and Nellahan as my only soldiers.

"Mercy our lord, if you don't mind me asking, why is it you doubt Truth's proposition on New Alexandra and the Ark?" Hybris noted.

"These are all traits in which Gravemind had planned for us however it wasn't Gravemind who summoned us it was Penitent and i am his favour to work for what he believed in not some false Prophet theories."

"These are all words of heresy Mercy, actions against their theories can be severely punishable" Nellahan speaks doubtfully.

"Fine, i will prove it to you when we enter the archives. I will show you exactly what the Prophets are doing when they achieve such theories".

Taking our men into the preparation drop ships and gearing rooms awaiting the green light to go.


	4. Chapter 4: The Hero of Reach

CHAPTER 4: ONCE GONE NOW REBORN

I am the Arbiter, the Marshall Captain of the UNSCDF human colonization; I lead the marine and ODST squadron to its victory. In the 9th age of reclamation the Arbiter's were known by their mighty powers as suicidal commanders leading their armies into the very pits of hell. A decade after the peace between the humans and the elite rebellion their homeland was attacked by the flood in one last gigantic fight for control. The humans were summoned to their aid however in the elites last moment in power they passed a legislation stating the Arbiter legacy was to be inherited by the humans to honour the death and extinction of all remaining elites. From that day on, there are is no form of elite left in the universe.

I honour the elite history and accept the inheritance of the Arbiter legacy proudly being the 9th human Arbiter since that legislation passed. The Intel our recon and scouts provide recall 'the Demonica' have appeared within our solar system and are closing in on earth very fast. A matter of minutes and they'll be all over us counting 2 capitol ships and 3 destroyers in their fleet. A small amount for a scale invasion but we are yet to discover their plans of attack. It is strange how a war can be so easily created and so fast after one has recently passed. The UAV drones, our eyes in the sky have detected large amounts of radiation appearing many kilometres above New Alexandria.

"Sir, slip space rupture! They're closing in very close to the city what are our orders?" yells Overlord.

One of the two capitol ships has skipped behind our defences we had prepared in the outer atmosphere. Whilst they still remain on guard we needed a new strategy and fast as these capitol ships are able to desecrate cities within a matter of minutes.

"Sir, requesting Longsword Fighter assistance the enemy capital ship; roughly 17 clicks above the city is charging their annihilation beams."

Thinking to myself what the Admiral could be thinking as he has had allot of preparation however we haven't had an enemy so eager to destroy an entire city so suddenly. The Admiral launches the Longsword fighters without a though.

"Ok rookies, we've got the green light clear to take off go, go, go!" said Overlord and away the assault commenced.

The Longsword Fighters are majorly underequipped for a jet its size. They're more built for speed and evasion however we need the real guns out to destroy these cruisers I'm guessing Admirals sense of releasing them was to dispose of all possible threats within the city by destroying drop ships and enemy sceptres. However we hadn't experienced a small invasion such as this on reach in the past 500 years we weren't sure what to expect. I prepared all the ODST and marine battlements and squadrons in all areas surrounding New Alexandria but my main goal was to get into the capitol ships archive to uncover the truth behind such an invasion.

"Sir I'm picking up large amounts of nuclear radiation building up fast under that capital ship and is prepared to fire directly above us!" Overlord announced.

Examining the strange nuclear radiation building up around us Admiral comes to the conclusion, "Glassing beam!" Admiral exclaimed. "Evacuate the base now! Go! Arbiter, get the Corporal and the Sergeant out now! I'll hold off them for now".

The Admiral Summons anti-projectile shields around the headquarters however everyone knew this would only hold off the glassing beams for a few minutes as the atomic heat and ultra violet would just melt away the shield.

"May your strength stay with us" i respond to the Admirals wish both knowing it was a one way trip. I make my move to collect both the sergeant and corporal however sergeant declines my grip and moves forward.

"Admiral, take my place and let me hold up the shields". The Admiral Refuses sergeant's proposition however thinks in depth. "Reach has been good to me; good to you as well Admiral and you've withstood every fight however this time we were caught off guard. The world still needs you to conduct counter attack so please i beg of you. Go with the Arbiter".

The Admiral honourable withdraws from the controls and allows Sergeant to take control. "Thanks sergeant, for all you've done" Admiral sorrowfully responds. The entire courtroom removes their helmets and hats to respect sergeant's actions. Making our way back to the last UNSC pelican drop ship left in the headquarters hanger bay the Admiral takes one large inhale before the pelican ramps retract and speaks "this is the last huge breath both the sergeant and i will take and we share it together in a long history of fighting by ones side".

The base in impaled by a huge array of radiation as the capitol ejects one large burst of the glassing beam. The shields did as expected and shielded the base however clear physical damage to the shield was visible. As we manage to escape the base, far out of the shield i take one last look as the shields are finally overran and the glassing beam intrudes the base tearing it apart in one blinding light. The sergeant was finally at rest, sacrificing his own life for the good of all of s leaving his wife and two sons behind; he will be honoured come the end of this invasion.


	5. Chapter 5: Initiation

CHAPTER 5: INITIATION

"Hierarch this is Stapp leader reporting over the succession of my conflict on Reach, everything has gone to plan we are now ready for immediate extraction. The archives are completely open to us."

"Well done Stapp leader. Mercy prepare for infiltration and be couscous, we don't know if anyone still lives however priority is the archive and you will retrieve it at once!" Truth demanded.

I being the prophet of Mercy have always had a curious side. We initially decided to leave the humans be after we knew they were capable of the Graveminds destruction however once Truth supposedly dreamt of Gravemind's return he was ever so determined and conned us all into believe it were possible . Truth didn't want to stop there; he demands all human presence along the 'Great Journey' must be eradicated without exception however his only reasoning is because they once defeated Gravemind. Truth was always the more different one, a prophet who demands and is often opinionated, would have condemned me of treason if i refused believing him about the Ark however, he sees me as a brother who once fought as an alliance no questions asked.


	6. Chapter 6: Enter the Labyrinth

CHAPTER 6: ENTERING THE LABYRINTH

The humans had retreated far beyond the outskirts of the city, no civilian stood lonesome. Not a soul in sight.

"Closing in on the crater Mercy, five seconds to touchdown" Shipmaster announced

A slow lowering movement with a large crank as the ship surfaced the planet; the activation of the anti gravitational pad lowering us from the ship's interior to the cold harsh winds of New Alexandria. A slash of air slapped me in the face blowing vigorously as i turned to the right surroundings vaguely scanning the area not picking up much in the darkening black of the smoke filled skies. The troops had a sharp eye ready for anything as i directed them closely and sensibly towards the inner crater to ensure maximum discreteness and minimal damage. We repelled deep into the crater where half torn corridors show their foundations and darkness blackens my troop. Walking just a few metres into the darkness activating my night vision visors half burnt and half severed bodies sprinkle the floor with frayed wires acting as a potential threat i notice the corridor widening and soon branching off into dozens of corridors, what one was a seemingly dark hallway become a darkened labyrinth.

"Sir lets divide the squad into groups to tackle this hazard and find the archives, Lord Truth wanted this quick and easy" first Lieutenant suggests.

Thinking to myself why Truth would consider any mission easy by judging it however having no experience in close quarter missions it can get quite dangerous and time consuming i soon accept the lieutenant's proposal and politely nod. Lieutenant took three troops and headed onward, i took two other soldiers with me to the right hallway whilst the last two travelled left. Several double doors appeared ahead; many of them missing a door some kept opening and closing repeatedly. We walked through the labyrinth for twenty minutes until i got that strange feeling someone was following you or something was watching you; something that wasn't supposed to be there. My visor and ground radar began to blink and become static whilst many of my suits major functions became to trigger on and off. This occurred for all of us and it became cold, very cold however the off putting silence was killing me all i could see or feel was black.

I turned around to see to my troop, they had all removed their visors as the night vision wasn't responding and so i did myself. I turned around to see a flickering light at the opposite end of the hallway about fifteen metres down. The flickering jumped closer and close as a soft echo became louder and louder. I aim my gun towards it as it flew faster towards us, my troops followed my actions but the echo and the flickering light came close enough that the echo turned into a very violent scream that smashed through us corrupting our suits, pulling me to the ground in pain. My ears began to bleed, one of my troops has strangely died by the scream and the entire corridor began to shake as if it were an earthquake. My other soldier was fine however he was deafened by the scream also with his ears bleeding. Struggling to stand up i could make out gunshots in the opposite direction to us and the sound of lieutenant roaring into battle. The same echoing scream shattered towards his general direction. Less deafening to me however the gunshots had stopped and the ground began to violently shake again. Picking up my last soldier holding him up with my shoulder we began to run towards the far end of the corridor in which the flickering entity had appeared. The radar began to function with the radio intact as well, three red dots indicating a friendly casualty stood still as two living friendly dots ran the opposite way to us. I contacted them "Red One what's your status?"

"Taking fire, heavy fire, one soldier from Green Two's group we found dead and missing a leg which was when we ran into that... thing... but whatever it is, it's after us!".

"Steady yourself troops follow the radar in towards the north and we'll see if we can cut across and regroup"

"Affirmative sir, see you on the other side".


	7. Chapter 7: The Blue Monolith

CHAPTER 7: THE BLUE MONOLITH

My soldier began to regain consciousness and strength and so limping turned into sprinting. Taking as many turns as we could to shorten the distance between us and Red One whilst greatening the distance between us and the thing the radio suddenly drops into static and an extra terrestrial high pitched whistle sounded deafening us from everything else. The green living dots on my radar began to blink red indicating they are taking fire but began to fade with my radar as the screen turned into static my soldier and i ran faster as we could feel the cold catching up to us, the thing, whatever it is was catching up to us. My heart began to race with me as the fully functional double doors in front of us slammed shut and a radio signal came in.

"No, no, NO!" Red One had screamed into the microphone. I assume his life was over and ours was next on the line. Not being able to see anything not even our foe we slowed down our pace losing hope in our survival we turned back in into the weakening cold looking for another route around the door and back into vision with our radar and radio. Taking many lefts and rights we ran towards what seemed to be a beam of light flashing around a corner. Naturally thinking it was a way out or better yet the archive my soldier and i ran towards it aimlessly however when we slid around the corner our hearts stopped as a floating electric blue monolith floated in front of us. Before i could make a next move the monolith reformed into a small transparent fiend which looked at us grinning in evilness. One last scream was all it took blasting my soldier and i into the walls behind us collapsing the entire hallway falling into the corridor below us.

The fiend blinked and disappeared however i had fallen into a fully functional corridor which still had lighting. Upon landing harshly on my back awakening from daze i lean to my left to see my last troop skewered by splintered concrete foundations. My armour was heavily damaged and all functions didn't respond. It was just me, my gun and this blue fiend alone in a labyrinth. I walked down a ramp towards what a sign called 'recollection archives'. I passed through one last double door to end up in a completely lit cylindrical room stretching a hundred metres in diameter. I was on level twenty seven out of seventy four, looking up at the ceiling it was at least fifty or so metres up however below was a great two hundred metre drop. The levels operated by a central control panel, elevators alike you would select a level and it would take you it however these archives we labelled having oldest archives towards the bottom and more recent towards the top. According to this panel, the ninth age of reclamation was on the fifty second floor. I reach my arm over to select fifty two however i was startled by a loud echoing voice.

"Ah reclaimer how wonderful of you for joining me" the voice said sarcastically. The entire room began to glow red and blue which i didn't really know what it meant however it wasn't rocket science to know it wasn't good.

"Oh my, it seems i have triggered a self defensive mechanism by unauthorised access to the files in this rooms, i am unsure of its use however I'm sure you don't mind if i take it all for myself" the voice said sarcastically again.

I spammed the fifty-second-floor button and the level began to descend very slowly. Cogs and pistons swapping places and retracting to allow the mechanism to move i came to the conclusion this place is a very old system; at least thousands of years old. The blue monolith appeared on the very top level of the monolithic cylindrical archive draining away its knowledge level by level. It seemed it was draining information faster than the mechanism was lowering the platform i stood on. I prepared the extraction hard drive i planned to use if i could reach the fifty second level first to extract all of its data before the monolith however he had drained the information of level five and above before i could descend to level twenty eight. I began shooting at it to see if it could slow it down however the bullets proved helpless as they passed through the monolith. I came to the conclusion that it will catch up to me before i could reach the desired level so i began damaging to pistons and cogs in an attempt to put the platform in some sort of freefall.

My theory was a success and the platform fell, the monolith caught eye and aborted its extraction process and focused straight for the fifty second floor. In mid freefall i shoved myself closer to the archive holding out my right arm activating the extraction hard drive. The monolith began to extract seconds before i passed the floor however i managed to link the hard drive and the archive together and soaked up all the information. Level fifty two deactivated and darkened indicating it had no archive and so i succeed in extracting the data however the blue monolith was also nowhere to be seen meaning i may have extracted it with the archive. Using the butt of my weapon as a grapple hook, the platform plummeted into the ground disappearing into a cloud of dust and smoke.

With the blue monolith deactivated i was able to reactivate my radio and signal Truth of my success. Disappointed time wise Truth organise a drop ship to my location to pick me up. I explained to Truth why it took too long to access the archive and told him all about the troops and the blue monolith in which we now held captive. It turns out Blue Monolith was an AI called Offensive Bias in which Gravemind corrupted and turn against the humans. Offensive Bias was captured by the humans and placed in a darkened Labyrinth disguising the main tunnels to the archive. Over one hundred entrances to the labyrinth none of them leading to the archives; it was just a cover up to dispose of intruders. Truth being a follower of Gravemind created an alliance with Offensive Bias him being Gravemind's disciple and so we implied him with questions about the Ark and the humans plans he extracted from the first five levels in the archive. We were now finished with Reach and are preparing to retreat to the ark.


End file.
